Bamboo bonanza for Kvaerner

Aker Kvaerner has secured a $10 million order to deliver the world's largest bamboo cooking plant, to be constructed in the People's Republic of China.

The cooking plant is part of a new pulp mill that Guizhou Chitianhua Paper Industrial Company is currently building in Guizhou Province. The plant will produce 200,000 tonnes of pulp per year, making the cooking plant the world's largest using bamboo as raw material.

Kvaerner Pulping, part of the Aker Kvaerner group, will provide engineering, procurement and supervision services (EPS). The greenfield mill is scheduled to start up in mid-2007.

"Our own, patented cooking method - Compact Cooking - has shown to be especially effective at reducing problems with scaling, which is a common issue with bamboo", commented Per-Åke Färnstrand, President of Kvaerner Pulping.

Recently, Kvaerner Pulping successfully completed the world's largest fibreline project for Hainan Jinhai Pulp & Paper Company on the island of Hainan in Southern China.